


Riley & Maya

by briony46



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drinking, F/F, Lesbian Character, Marriage Proposal, POV Maya Hart, Pansexual Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 19:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12990618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/briony46/pseuds/briony46
Summary: What if Riley fell into Maya's lap?





	Riley & Maya

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 2am and it's unedited please don't judge me. My ego is fragile.

Have you ever had the feeling of a void in your life being suddenly, intensely, and completely filled? A void you never knew existed? It's like when someone points out that the visual and the audio of a movie aren't fully synced up, and you hadn't noticed it, but then you do notice it and you can't stop noticing it.

It's like that, except you only notice there was a disconnect when the visual and the audio sync, perfectly and mysteriously and all at once. 

She'd never been that big on symbolism or identity. She always saw people making grand proclamations of who they are, and hey, good for them, but she never saw the point of trying to define herself by a list of words. She was more than a list of words. 

And then she met Riley.

Riley Matthews walked into her life - or rather fell into her life - on the campus bus. All the seats had been full, so she'd been stood holding a pole, her headphones in, when the bus came to an abrupt and sudden and destiny-inducing stop and someone fell right into her arms.

One look at her face and, without thinking, she said "I think you just fell for me." 

Afterwards, she determined that Ruelle is the greatest artist of all time. It's the only explanation she could think up of how she could have not noticed Riley until she (quite literally) fell into her lap.

To the surprise of the rest of the bus, who thinking back on it Maya recalled watching their interaction, Maya did not get Riley's number. That might have had something to do with Maya not asking. But later that day she finally logged into Facebook and, at the very top of her handful of friend requests, was one Riley Matthews.

She accepted, somewhat curiously, and sent Riley a message asking something like how the stalking is going. Riley replied quickly and bubbily, sending a message with a story of seeing her in her recommended friends that was so adorably paranoid Maya couldn't help but believe her. She assured Riley of this, and they talked all night. 

The next day, Maya realised Riley Matthews was everywhere. She was always in the library when Maya was, she was always walking past the art building when Maya was in class, she was always a few tables away from Maya in the on-campus cafe.

Riley Matthews is one of those things you don't notice until you notice it, but when you do notice it you can't stop noticing it.

Off of their phones, their second in-person interaction was in the stairwell of Maya's dorm building. Turns out, Riley lives exactly a floor beneath her. The layout for all the first-year housing is identical, and as they both picked the same bedroom in said layout, Riley lives _exactly_ a floor beneath her. 

About a week later, Maya had realised that the sound of a broom tapping on her floor is Riley inviting her to chill.

Not that Riley would use the word chill.

Maya had also realised that Riley was a photography major with a minor in journalism. Not an unusual combination, but the proportions were usually switched. Maya felt that there was some symmetry to them, Riley's passion for taking pictures and Maya's passion for painting pictures.

The first time they got drunk together was the first time Maya had got drunk in a while, and Riley possibly ever. Sometime during the night the lights got blurry and the room got spinny and Maya's brain ended up somewhere in her gut and Riley's lips ended up on hers. The moment ended quickly, although maybe it was an hour-long moment, and then it was gone. It took Maya several days to build up the courage to bring it up to Riley, worried that she'd found herself in an 'in love with a straight girl who's just experimenting' situation, and was relieved when Riley Matthews liked her back. 

Maya quickly found herself spending more and more time in Riley's dorm room. It's one less flight of stairs, and Riley's roommates were a lot cleaner than her own. Soon enough half of her belongings were scattered around Riley's dorm, and neither of them really noticed it until one of Riley's roommates made a joke about Maya moving in.

And then Maya moved in.

And then Maya moved out.

(Because the college only provides housing to first years.)

They didn't move out from Riley's roommates, because there was no way they could afford the rent for this house on their own, but they did insist on having separate bedrooms. Even though everyone knew Maya would spend all her time in Riley's, the biggest one with the biggest bed.

Maya modeled for so many of Riley's assignments that she eventually caught on they weren't assignments at all. She played her little game back, claiming she needed a model for her painting three weeks in a row, and they both giggled in a way they'd never giggled before when they mutually realised the situation.

Then they painted and photographed each other all the time anyway.

Somewhere during their second year Maya felt a completely foreign feeling somewhere deep in her chest, but now that she thought about it not _completely_ foreign. She vaguely recognised it, as if from a dream she was unsure was actually a dream or not, and she finally realised - it was home. 

Sometimes Maya had de ja vu. Sometimes Riley would say something about turning the world upside down or Maya would say something about turning gold that would make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up because this happened before, she's absolutely sure of it, but she knows that she would remember if it had. She usually dismissed it and held Riley's hand a little tighter.

Then Maya proposed, some years after college. Maya proposed with the trail of roses and the rooftop sunset and the ring, and then Maya melted when Riley screamed YES for the whole world to hear and they kissed like they were drunk and dumb and dizzy again, and then Maya found out Riley had a ring of her own.

And then their lives were imperfectly perfect. That's what Maya liked to call it; perfection is a complete myth, an unattainable ideal, and even if it was attainable, she wouldn't want it. Perfect would mean that never fought and if they never fought they never made up and if they never made up they were never made stronger for it. Perfect meant Riley never painted purple cats and perfect meant they never botched a batch of cookies and laughed about it for hours and perfect meant no reason to fight.

Why fight for something you're in no danger of losing?

No, Maya doesn't want perfect. Maya wants Riley's attempts at art and her own attempts at photography and broken sunlight on Riley's face and cats that are purple and rings more powerful than any crown and a beautifully flawed imperfection.

Maya wants Riley and Maya.


End file.
